T: Big bourbon barrel notes up front, oak, vanilla, aroma is much better than the taste, not a lot of complexity or depth to the taste, very hot, overwhelmingly hot and straightforward. Some chocolate notes come through as the beer warms.

M: Medium bodied with a thick oil like mouthfeel, semi-dry finish.

O: Great look and aroma, however, the taste doesn't live up, still very good but it lacks depth and complexity due to the alcohol coming through very strong on the taste. Some time in the cellar might help to balance the beer out, still very good and enjoyable, will cellar a bottle and check it in a year.

Taste: Tastes a LOT better than it smells. Chocolate-y, buttery, vanilla, oak, char, some estery dark fruits, and bitterness round things out. Honestly I was a little scared when I smelled it. The soy sauce and alcohol where so harsh and prevalent, but not nearly so much on the palate. There's still a lot of butterscotch and salinity though. Still not that great.

Mouthfeel: Huge, sticky, light carbonation. Heat kicks you in the back of the throat.

Overall: It's alright, not worth the price. Lost Abbey/ Port are very hit or miss when it comes to barrel aged stouts.

Legs look a little thin and gritty, the barrel-aging has tamed the overly carbonated base beer. This barreled version pours with minimal head. There is only a thin ring of light-tan-colored bubbles around the edge to show the carbonation here.
The smell is huge bourbon, oak, vanilla, and some cocoa. It smells like a huge beer. Having just tasted the base beer immediately before this, it makes sense. The base has a mild, subtle smell, and in this version of it, the barrel aging has completely taken over. I love that bourbon/oak/vanilla smell, but the base beer is lost in the mix.
The taste is almost identical to the smell. Huge bourbon, oak, and vanilla. It's delicious, but at the same time, it's almost more like drinking an oaky bourbon/cocoa cocktail than a stout.
It has a slick, tongue-coating sort of feel to it. Oily. A little bit light for a BA stout.
Overall: If you're a fan of the style, it's delicious. It's boozy and very much bourbon-forward. Tons of oak and chocolate and vanilla as well. Not a lot of base-stout complexity made it past the barrel, though. The roasted grains and hops are in the mix, but the barrel is the star of this show.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours pitch black, opaque in the glass with a half finger light brown head with great retention and lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt and bourbon with light hints of coffee and chocolate; slightly boozy. Flavor is semi-sweet dark toasted malt with light char, chocolate, vanilla, bourbon. Finishes with nice chocolatey malt and bourbon with a light oak note. Great creamy body with a medium to heavy mouth feel. A very nicely made bourbon aged imperial stout. The base stout is great and is one of my favorite stouts, and the bourbon adds its usual magic. There is a bit more booziness to this, almost as if actual bourbon were added to it, but overall its very well balanced and full flavored. Fantastic mouth feel. Top notch barrel aged stout. This was bottle from the basement fridge and I don't remember when I bought it; it may have a few years on it. If so, it has aged superbly. Note to self: buy more.

Deep black color
Smoky coffee and booze smell
Spicy chocolate bourbon taste that just got richer and smoother as the beer warmed up.
Sharp mouth feel that didn't hide the booze but didn't let it take over the beer.

T/F: Taste follows the smell, with strong oak character.. booze and vanilla. Great roasted malts and mild chocolate. Caramel and burnt raisins. Better and more fullness as it comes to room temperature. Warming from the high ABV.

Pours a nice chocolate color with almost no head. Aroma is roasted malts with some chocolate notes. You get the bourbon right a way with a sweet vanilla smell too. Flavor is bourbon up front. There are sweet notes of vanilla and chocolate. Leaves a warm mouthfeel front he bourbon. Overall this is a nice beer, but price is the biggest knock. I'd rather have 3 KBS for the same price.

Thick, sticky mouth feel. Moderate+ carbonation. Sweet and creamy, almost syrupy. Bourbon and chocolate linger. A bit of bitterness at the end. Some alcoholic heat as well.

Thick, sticky, sweet stout with good bourbon flavor. Aroma was very subdued compared to the taste. Not up to the standard of some of the classics of the style(BCS comes to mind being I'm reviewing this on Black Friday) but still enjoyable.

Pours a deep, dark brown, almost thick and oily. Small head that dissipates quickly. Smell is dominated by vanilla, bourbon, chocolate, and sweet brown sugar. Flavor is similar, but with a lot of boozy heat. Overall this beer could use a few years to age to mellow out that heat.

22oz bottle shared during #bottlecherwednesday at Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach. Poured into tulip. Appearance is black with brown edges and a tan head rises a finger high before collapsing to a film. A little bit of patchy lace sticks to the glass. This beer is a barrel bomb! The aroma is all oak, bourbon, vanilla, and char. One of the other guys mentioned he was getting dog food, and he was right on it. Definitely an animal feed element. Not getting much of the base beer. Taste is a less satisfying version of the nose - lots of bourbon heat, vanilla, oak, and chocolate. Medium-heavy body, oily, creamy, thick texture, average to soft carbonation, hot boozy finish.

Big pitch black vicious pour with a tan head and spotty lacing on the glass. Bourbon forward aromas, vanilla, oak, wood barrel, chocolate, mild coffee, hints of char and earthy notes. Taste is very bourbon forward. Bourbon, and oak. Mid palate some coffee and chocolate from the stout base comes through. Wood, mild char and alcohol heat on the finish. Body is full and there's some initial bite before it goes smooth and creamy. Alcohol sting on the swallow makes it rough. If you like bourbon, this stout is what your looking for. A little rough around the edges but the flavors are there.

I didn't adjust score but a bit of an add on review for the 2014 vintage, 12% abv, cellared one year. The heat is gone. Notes of oak, bourbon, vanilla, chocolate fudge, and light coffee. Fantastic with some time on it. Great smooth feel on a full body a bit drying and bitter at the end. Where fresh it was rough, cellared it's smooth. It's almost a different beer. This one would be world class if they released it cellared.

12.7oz, caged and corked bottle, 12% ABV, thanks be once again to the good doktorzee for procuring this for me from SoCal.

This beer pours a solid, light-destroying black abyss, with the barest of cola-tinged basal edges, and two fingers of wanly puffy, tightly foamy, and somewhat bubbly tan head, which leaves a bit of awkwardly arched lace around the glass as it genially recedes.

The bubbles are pretty understated in their frothy temerity, the body a hefty medium-full weight, and generally smooth, what with that 24-proof booze gnashing at the outer gates, and perhaps even a tad creamy. It finishes on the sweet side, the Bourbon, chocolatey caramel, and milky coffee kind of tightening the reins.

A pretty tasty and engaging imperial stout, aged in Bourbon barrels, at that. The wood does some good, and some not so good, but in the end, the positives outweigh the negatives. And yeah, the 12% ABV is sublimated enough that I didn't think to mention it outright until now, which I suppose is sayin' something. Cheers, Santa - after that particularly long day of work, you do indeed deserve to drink this stuff for the rest of the year!

I like this almost as much as older viscosity I think. Just a huge stout with as much bourbon on it as any beer I've ever had. Hershey's syrup dark brown and sludgy with a flash of mocha fizz before it settles to nearly still. The nose is all bourbon, vanilla and raw molasses spice with heave dark barley and chocolate malt, charred oak, and marshmallow. The flavor is just like the nose, do much going on but do well integrated. It's almost too much, a sensory overload that is best in small to medium doses. Sweet from the vanilla but not too sweet, and really heavily oaked. Fully bodied and teeth coating, but more flavorful than others. It feels Christmasy and may have a touch of spice in the Finnish. As strong it seems as a shot if bourbon, I love it!

I have to say I don't regularly drink bourbon stouts but when I do it damn well will be this one. Pours that of an extremely dark brown
with a light golden head. It possesses the scent similar to the taste which is of a bourbony chocolate. Definitely recommend for lovers of bourbon barrel stouts